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Sons of Gentlemen – the boys who learnt their trade on ships that killed a man every voyage

Published on the Kindle (April 10).

Sons of Gentlemen – in the days of the Titanic The adventures of Greeny, an apprentice in tall ships 1908 to 1912

by Captain T B Greenhalgh

It was a ‘dog’s life’, he was told, in the sailing ships that killed on average one man every voyage. And 'Greeny' soon discovered that you had to eat hard tack teeming with live maggots and weevils, or starve.

Then came the biting cold, scorching heat, gales, doldrums, wild seas, brutish officers (including the captain), a cloud of lethal vapour that enveloped the ship… and appalling deaths.

The crew, ignoring superstitions, even slaughtered a majestic albatross for fun.

Yet, floating above all the hardship was the beauty and romance of sail, which enslaved a teenage dreamer for ever.